This invention relates to improved apparatus and methods for use in diagnosing dental occlusions and in making and testing dental prosthetic devices outside of a patient's mouth.
The making of artificial teeth or other prosthetic devices is still, to a large extent, a trial and error technique. The desired goal is to make the necessary impressions and measurements on the patient's teeth and jaw and then make the prosthetic device and test it, without the need to see the patient until the device is ready to be fit into the patient's mouth. To accomplish this goal, one common approach is to mount the prosthetic device in a dental articulator and attempt to simulate the patient's jaw movements while observing whether the prosthetic device seems to be correctly designed. It therefore becomes necessary to be able to properly set or adjust the dental articulator so as to best simulate the patient's jaw movements.
One common technique for doing this is to make records of the patient's teeth with the jaws in various positions and then attempt to transfer the recorded information to the dental articulator. This approach is often referred to as the "checkbite" procedure wherin the patient bites into impression paste, wax or plaster, and attempts are made to maintain the patient's jaws stationary while the paste, wax or plaster sets or hardens. Simple, flat, metal sheets have been used to hold the impression material in some techniques.
This general approach is accomplished in several different ways, all of which have various advantages and disadvantages. A common advantage of this technique is that it is readily understandable and thus teachable, at least in concept, which is in contrast to some methods of making jaw measurements and setting dental articulators. On the other hand, a common disadvantage of the prior known checkbite approaches is that they are inaccurate due to improper understanding of lateral jaw movement and improper techniques, such that the mandible posterior teeth are not properly positioned when impressions are made. Further, with the methods used, it is difficult to maintain the patient's lower jaw steady while tooth impression material is hardening, and thus, difficult to obtain the desired accurate results. Thus, a need still exists for improving the apparatus and methods of simply obtaining accurate check bite records used in setting a dental articulator.